DAVISON – Erin Brown didn't have the best individual pin average and she wasn't anywhere near Sam Houston State's anchor bowler, but she was able to do what she's always done on every other level in college: win.

Sam Houston State captured its first-ever national title, in any sport, with its NCAA bowling championship this season. Brown, of Davison, was a sophomore on the roster when the Bearkats upset the defending champions Nebraska, 4-2, in April.

The Davison community wasn't shocked at all by her success. Rollaway Lanes and Richfield Bowl is where she got started and worked her way from bumper bowling leagues into a national champion.

"She's been the right girl, at the right time, in the right position and it seems like whatever team she bowls on things just clicked for her," said Davison bowling coach Robert Tubbs, also Brown's uncle. "It's not enough to be talented, but you have to fall things into place."

Brown, 19, is already an inductee in the Flint Youth Hall of Fame. She also earned a gold medal in 2010 for team competition at the Junior Gold Youth Championships, collected multiple city titles, and led Davison to a Division I bowling state title as a senior in 2012.

Brown helped the Bearkats reach their second NCAA Championship in berth as a freshman then posted a sixth-best individual average of 185.11 this year for the team. Her statistical contribution wasn't breathtaking but Sam Houston coach Brad Hagen admired her commitment for improvement.

"This was a very big growing year for Erin, which was a very positive thing, so it was important for her to attack things better from a mental competitiveness standpoint," Hagen said. "Growing and maturing as a Division I athlete was really one of the things that benefited her the most."

Not everybody is able to get the type of valuable experience that Brown was able to get on Sam Houston's championship run, so that opportunity to relish those pressure situations will be huge for the program moving forward. Sam Houston's bowling program has only been around since 2010 but has been ranked on every major poll since the inaugural year. Sam Houston was also voted No. 1 in the final National Ten Pin Coaches Association's national poll after this year's national title when school history was made as the first team of any sport to do so.

The women completed the season with 96 victories and only 47 losses.

"One thing we always say is why be a part of history when you can write it," Brown said. "We definitely wrote history at Sam Houston University as the first NCAA championship team. We have a saying called 'Finish' and we definitely finished."

Brown wasn't the only Davison bowler to make an impact on the collegiate level this season. Her high school teammate Brooke Wood was named Arkansas State's 2013-14 female Freshman of the Year and made the NCAA All-Tournament team in Wickliffe, Ohio, after the NCAA Bowling Tournament – where A-State finished fifth.

Both Brown and Wood are really close friends that grew up in Davison together competing in the same youth leagues. The girls still keep in touch as often as possible but it's not as easy as it once was because Brown lives in Davison and Wood stays in Arkansas.

"At nationals when she made the All-Tournament team and after I won we took a picture together and it was cool to represent Davison so well at nationals," Brown said.